Boston Globe -- Joanna Weiss columns

Broadening horizons

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-19T17:46:51Z

The Syfy cable network, formerly known as SciFi, drew its best October prime-time ratings in network history last month, fueled by shows like “Stargate Universe,’’ “Sanctuary,’’ and “Ghost Hunters,’’ and by its new identity as a home for “imagination-based entertainment.’’ We spoke to the network’s vice president and creative director, Michael Engleman - a Newton native and Tufts University graduate ...

PBS can market its kids shows without selling out

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-14T18:22:46Z

I’m ready for my Ruff Ruffman T-shirt. And my Ruff Ruffman backpack. And maybe a Ruff Ruffman flea collar, just for show. I want Ruff consumer-product overload.

Critic’s corner

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-09T22:35:46Z

In the Spotlight With Robin Roberts: Bright Lights, Big Stars, All Access Nashville 10 p.m., Channel 5

Critic’s corner

Joanna Weiss — 2009-11-09T02:22:50Z

How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin 10 p.m., Channel 2 Revolution, indeed. Award-winning director Leslie Woodhead introduces us to Russians (above) who found their way to the Beatles’ outlawed music and drew hope and inspiration from the Fab Four.

Critic’s corner

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-08T05:00:00Z

Mad Men 10 p.m., AMC Last week, the show caught up with the Kennedy assassination and Betty (January Jones, above) decided to change her life. In tonight’s season finale, we might - might - find out if she follows through.

It’s not easy being red

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-06T19:10:17Z

I resisted, at first. How could I not? As someone who grew up on 1970s-era “Sesame Street,’’ then revisited the show with my own kid three decades later, I was appalled to see that my beloved Grover and Cookie Monster had lost precious airtime to a skinny red Muppet who refers to himself in the third person. Elmo is no ...

Critic’s corner

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-06T18:49:09Z

Saturday Night Live 11:30 p.m., Channel 7 Taylor Swift does double duty as host and musical guest. My money is on real-life Kanye to show up and redeem himself. (And maybe for Beyoncé to turn up, too.)

Critic's corner

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-05T19:00:23Z

Fanboy and Chum-Chum 9 p.m., Nickelodeon Nickelodeon’s new animated series, starring the voices of Jamie Kennedy and Josh Duhamel, is perfectly calibrated for the mind and funny bone of a 10-year-old boy. Tonight’s premiere spoofs comic books, wizards, and all aspects of school.

‘Platinum Babies’ wallows in extravagance

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-05T18:39:27Z

I had to watch WE’s “Platinum Babies’’ twice before I figured out why this particular look at conspicuous consumption is so much less satisfying than Bravo’s “Real Housewives’’ series. Then it hit me.

Critic’s corner

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-04T17:15:10Z

Grey’s Anatomy 9 p.m., Channel 5 Last week’s Derek-narrated episode encapsulated what this show still does brilliantly (tension mixed with humor mixed with pathos) and horribly (world’s calmest, wisest tumor patient). Tonight, we spend some time with Arizona.

Critic’s corner

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-03T17:57:52Z

The New Adventures of Old Christine 8 p.m., Channel 4 The recent “Seinfeld’’ reunion episodes on “Curb Your Enthusiasm’’ serve as a good reminder that the most successful “Seinfeld’’ alum is Julia Louis-Dreyfus (above), who manages to make her not-so-new character both Elaine-ish at times and thoroughly unique. Tonight, Christine tries to sponge off her son’s popularity.

AD:

2009-11-03T17:57:52Z

Critic’s corner

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-02T21:50:10Z

V 8 p.m., Channel 5 They’re back! ABC remakes the 1980s miniseries into a cool, creepy show about an alien invasion - starring Elizabeth Mitchell as an FBI agent and Morena Baccarin as a smooth-talking alien chief.

On the campaign trail, and we already know the result

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-11-02T21:45:35Z

In some ways, it’s instructive that the new HBO documentary “By the People: The Election of Barack Obama’’ airs a full year after Election Day, when the fizzy promises of hope and change have given way to cold reality. (Emotional summation of the Obama presidency: We still have hope, but we haven’t changed much yet, though we’ve made a few ...

It's high time for TV to embrace sci fi

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-24T16:55:25Z

If only we had learned, a little earlier, that “Dollhouse’’ was about the end of the world.

A peek at trigger-happy America

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-20T17:01:51Z

There is a coastal sensibility to “Lock ’n Load,’’ the new reality series that premieres on Showtime tonight. Viewers, the show assumes, will be amazed to learn that some Americans actually shop for guns, hold them and clean them, take them to firing ranges and fire them. Even women! Even kids!

Here’s hoping ‘Leno’ survives . . . but not as is. Here’s a blueprint for some necessary changes.

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-19T23:52:51Z

It’s hard not to root for the underdog, and Jay Leno - despite his massive salary, his fleet of cars, his ownership of five prime hours of network TV - is the underdog. Knocked prematurely off his top-rated “Tonight Show’’ perch. Mocked for being a nice guy who appeals to Middle America. And now, hated by Hollywood for dominating prime ...

New wrinkles in product placement

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-16T17:29:57Z

Give NBC credit for trying new things. First, the network scuttled a third of its primetime schedule and replaced it with Jay Leno. Now comes news that the network has signed Jon Bon Jovi to a two-month “artist in residence’’ deal, which treats him to appearances on “Today,’’ “The Jay Leno Show,’’ “The Tonight Show,’’ and “Saturday Night Live.’’ He’ll ...

Poignant or just plain sad?

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-14T16:11:49Z

The ghost of Adam Goldstein - the musician better known as DJ AM - lingers poignantly over “Gone Too Far,’’ the MTV series about drug abuse that he created before he died of an overdose in August. It isn’t just that he hosts, introducing addicts and their families, explaining the various steps of the rehabilitation process. It’s the fact of ...

Policy, reality collide in ‘Obama’s War’

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-12T19:57:32Z

President Obama barely appears in “Obama’s War,’’ the new Frontline report on Afghanistan that airs tonight. We only hear his voice, from a speech he made in March, saying the men and women of the military “deserve a straightforward answer’’ to the question of why they continue to fight and die there.

Letterman demonstrates ‘Mad Men’ isn’t history

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-10T16:54:30Z

One of the chief appeals of a period piece like “Mad Men’’ is the way it lets us congratulate ourselves for being so enlightened. Ah, those poor folks from the dark ages of the 1960s, we can say. They smoked when they were pregnant! They littered after picnics! And their workplaces? Bastions of sexual harrassment, where the bosses flirted openly ...

Follow the Lamases? That’s up to you.

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-09T17:32:18Z

How many more television shows do we need about rich and idle starlets? The answer depends on whether you’re an executive at E!, a network that apparently believes more is more. Thus, into this world of Hiltons and Kardashians comes one Shayne Lamas, daughter of Lorenzo, granddaughter of Fernando, best known thus far for winning a recent season of “The ...

Will the real Joy Behar please stand up?

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-05T22:05:09Z

Of all of the people who could host a nightly talk show, Joy Behar is a logical choice. As a panelist on ABC’s daytime gabfest “The View,’’ she’s an effective and likable liberal flame-thrower, able to mix a sense of righteous indignation with a comedian’s sense of timing. In her off-the-airwaves stand-up routine, she’s more political by far: profane, pointed, ...

Shepherd deserves better than ‘Sherri’

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-05T01:52:15Z

The world could probably use more comedians like Sherri Shepherd. But the world does not need more sitcoms like “Sherri.’’

30 reasons to love sports

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-03T16:52:45Z

Kirk Fraser was 9 years old - and living in the shadow of the University of Maryland - when the school’s basketball star, Celtics-bound Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose in 1986. Fraser remembers the media frenzy, the emotions, the way the event seemed a cautionary tale: “It prevented me from going down that path.’’

‘Stargate’ mysteries play like a ‘Lost’ in space

Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff — 2009-10-01T16:45:50Z

Science fiction series are notoriously hard to enter midstream. Syfy’s “Stargate’’ franchise, for instance, features a deep and slightly convoluted mythology, developed over the course of a feature film and three TV series, involving ancient alien visits and hieroglyphics, with Beau Bridges somewhere in the mix.